PHOTOS: Attacks Pound Gaza And Israel

Bombs explode during an Israeli attack on smuggling tunnels along the border between Egypt and Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. Photo: AP/Eyad Baba

JERUSALEM (AP) - Even amid talk of an imminent cease-fire, the relentless airstrikes and rocket attacks between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza continue.

The Hamas TV station Al-Aqsa says an airstrike late today killed two journalists who work for the station. A Gaza health official says they were in a car at the time. Israel claims that many Hamas journalists are involved in militant activities.

Gaza officials say more than 125 Palestinians, including at least 54 civilians, have been killed since Israel began an air campaign that has so far included nearly 1,500 strikes.

Three Israeli civilians have been killed and dozens wounded -- the numbers possibly kept down by a rocket-defense system that Israel developed with U.S. funding. And Israel now reports a soldier has been killed in a rocket strike -- the first Israeli military fatality in the Gaza conflict.

A Hamas official speaking from Egypt, where cease-fire talks are being held, says there's no deal yet, but that it will "most likely" come tonight. Egypt's president voiced similar optimism. Israel's prime minister said his country would be a "willing partner" in a cease-fire.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was dispatched to the Middle East late Tuesday for a series of meetings in hopes of cementing a cease-fire.